In my RSS reader I just found an AFP piece written by journalist Glenn Chapman about the fact that YouTube is blocked in China. I quickly scanned it and noticed that they are quoting me in the article. A bit strange as I am in San Francisco at the moment and nobody interviewed me about this. I did not really know about the YouTube block actually, I just saw a couple of messages on Twitter about it.

The article from the Sydney Morning Herald quotes a piece from my blog from October 18, 2007 (when YouTube was also not available for a few days) and says I posted this yesterday to explain why YouTube would be blocked. Because it’s a syndicated article it will likely appear in a lot of other newspapers tomorrow (or today, depending in which time zone you are in). The content is total bullshit. There is no National Congress going on, nor did YouTube just launch its Chinese version. Check your facts before you post an article like this Mr. Chapman. Just Googling and copy/pasting is only what bloggers do, right?

Update: I received an email from the AFP (but not from Mr. Chapman) saying that they read my blog post and corrected the story. The new version sent out across the wires now reads at the top “ATTENTION – CORRECTION: REMOVES quotes from blogger Marc van der Chijs in paras 15-19 which were mistakenly taken from comments made in a blog dated 2007. Here is a corrected repetition.” However, the piece still appears uncorrected in many media, a quick search just now still led to tens of articles where I am misquoted. Not only in English (such as the SCMP or The Times), but also in French at Les Echos and even in a Bolivian publication!

Last week I stayed one night in the Jinglun Hotel in Beijing and was surprised to see their phones. The hotel had in-room phones with large touch screens, I had never came accross these before. But the most interesting aspect was that they showed advertising on the screen. At first only on the right side of the touch pad, but after a while the whole screen was taken over by 30 second (or even longer) TV commercials! It was like having a second TV screen in your room, but one you cannot turn off – at least I did not figure out how to do that.

I found it quite annoying actually, what gives the hotel the right to spam me with commercials even inside my hotel room? For me that’s enough reason not to stay there again (the other reason is that I had a room on the Jianguomenwai Dajie side, which gets very noisy early in the morning). At first I was afraid I would have a lit-up screen next to me the whole night while sleeping, but luckily the screen turned itself off when it’s dark in the room. So maybe the trick to hide from the ads is to close the curtains during daytime and make sure all lights are turned off. Although the phones look nice, to me this is a big FAIL for the management of the Jinglun Hotel in Beijing.

Over the years I have been featured in many magazines, newspapers and other media, but I don’t think I ever made it to the front page of any publication. Well, there is a first for everything because someone just sent me a picture of the cover of the (Dutch) MarketingTribune. I am afraid a good looking lady would have been better for sales – especially considering the fact that the picture was taken right after I got off a plane from Shanghai to Amsterdam!

The share of online advertising in China still lags far behind the US or European market, an important issue for everybody involved in the Internet in China. I had hoped that the financial crisis would speed up the transition from traditional to digital marketing (because it’s much easier to measure), but I am actually seeing the opposite effect. Last year’s IAB China initiative has taken more time than expected to get off the ground, but I think eventually IAB will also play an important role in China’s online industry. In the meantime I applaud and try to support every initiative to increase awareness and opportunities in digital marketing. Today I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see that Omnicom and Fudan University launched a program to help marketeers and agencies better understand the world of digital marketing.

The course consists of 3 times 3 days of classes (Fri-Sun), with speakers from Internet companies (such as Tencent), PR and advertising agencies and professors from Fudan University. The class will be mainly taught in Chinese and will have simultaneous translation. The course will be a combination of lectures and case studies, so just like on the Web it is not just one-way communication but bi-directional!

Themes that will be covered are among others:
– The development of the Web in China
– Who is online in China
– How to use online to reach marketing objectives
– How to use the different tools (from advertising to UGC video, and from games to widgets)
– Crisis management (they should invite CIC’s Sam Flemming for this topic!)
– How the Internet is changing the advertising and other businesses

I am glad Omnicom came up with this initiative, because a course like this does not exist yet in China (as far as I know) and is very much needed. Many agencies sadly still lack basic knowledge about what the Internet can do for their clients, and this course can make a change. I hope it will become a big success!

More information: http://www.digitalworkschina.com/
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72220843078

Although I’ve been living for quite some years now in Shanghai, I had never been to the zoo. It’s only about 2 km from our house (almost walking distance for me), but I never thought about visiting it. Now that Scott is more than 14 months old we decided to take him there. This weekend the weather was great, about 20 degrees with blue skies, so an excellent time for a walk outside.

We went by car, but that was not a very smart idea. The Shanghai Zoo was built decades ago when there were hardly any cars in Shanghai, so there are not enough parking spaces. Instead of lining up at the parking lot (well, lining up is not the right word as everybody tried to cut in front), I decided to drive all around the zoo and park as close to the entrance as possible on Hami Lu. That strategy worked well and 15 minutes later we were inside the zoo. The entrance fee is RMB 30 (about USD 5) per person, quite reasonable I thought. Scott did not have to pay because China has a general rule that anybody smaller than 1.2 meters can go for free into zoo’s (and many other tourist places). Also my wife’s parents got in for free, because they are both retired. The blessings of a Communist country 🙂

The zoo itself was a bit different from what I expected, to me it felt more like a big park with some animals cages in it, than a real zoo where you have animal enclosures every 50 meters or so. I guess the reason is that when the zoo was built this part of Shanghai was still very far from any urban areas, so they used a huge amount of space. The original design of the zoo was a golf course, which explains the many open spaces. We actually did not visit that many animal buildings, but just had a nice walk around.

Most animals were still in their inside cages, instead of outside in their enclosures, and it was a bit of sad sight to see them. Most buildings were quite dilapidated and dirty, and inside they literally stank. I took Scott into the elephant building for example, but we left within a minute because of the smell. I felt bad for the animals, not only because of their living environment but also because people kept throwing plastic bottles and other items at them. Guards were either not there or did not care.

Scott was anyway less interested in the animals than in the visitors. He had a great time looking at all the people, and many people also looked at him (ah, xiao waiguoren, ta hen shuai!). At first we put him in his stroller, but later he wanted to walk and he walked hand in hand with my wife or me for quite some time. When he got tired I put him on my shoulders and that’s what he enjoyed most. He felt like a little emperor, pointing at all things that he felt were interesting or that he wanted to get closer to. If I went into the wrong direction he just pulled my hair to show me the way! I liked it as well, but my neck is a bit sore while I’m typing this.

The Shanghai Zoo is a nice place to visit on a sunny day. You can easily spend a whole day there, especially with kids. Scott was probably still a bit too young to fully understand what we were doing, but we’ll probably go back in a few months. If you’re not a big fan of animals the zoo is still a nice place to get away from the city. Although it was crowded around the animal cages, there are many parts of the zoo where you hardly see anybody else. There are huge grass lawns where you can relax and some people even put up tents there (normally in China you’re not even allowed to walk on the grass in parks) and were having a picnic. You can easily reach the place both by bus (last stop before Hongqiao airport for several bus lines) or taxi.

Address: 2381 Hong Qiao Road, Shanghai 200335 (just West of Hongqiao airport)

My little boy Scott develops quickly. After I came back from a short trip to The Netherlands on Monday I realized that once again. Before I left he could scream loudly but he was not really able to say any real words, except for “huh?” if he did not understand something or if he lost one of his toys. But that suddenly changed last week, and now he is able to say mama, baba and something that is probably zhua (Chinese for ‘catch’, our nanny uses that often when she is playing with him, pretending that she is trying to catch him. He loves the game). Last night he kept on saying baba baba while he had to go to sleep, so I came up to his room and he was very happy.

Scott is still a bit confused about language as he is raised tri-lingual (Chinese, English and Dutch – in that order). Because he hears Chinese virtually the whole day, that will be the language he will likely start talking in first. Only when I come home he hears English (my wife and I normally speak English together) or Dutch (if I talk with Scott). I want to make sure I understand everything he will say in Chinese, so I picked up my Chinese study again a few weeks ago, mainly reviewing the 2000 most important characters and listening to Chinesepod podcasts.

But not only did he start to talk. He is also getting a lot better at walking. He literally runs around the house now without falling. He can walk backwards, jump up and down, and he can turn around 360 degrees in one movement. He even manages that twice, but then he is so disoriented that he normally always falls down. If he falls he looks very surprised but normally he does not cry (he is a big boy!). And the few times that he really hurts himself it normally suffices to pick him up and hold him for a few seconds.

He also started to dance over the past couple of days. A lot of his toys have music functions built in and some of them he likes so much that he now dances with the music, moving his body to the rhythm – or at least trying to do that. He also swings his arms around and he has a huge smile on his face while doing this. It’s so nice to see these steps in his development, I am a very happy father!

Yesterday I was in Beijing and did not find the time to blog about this when it was announced to the press, but Spil Games is now the world’s largest casual game portal worldwide. From the number 5 position one year ago, Spil Games now passed among others Yahoo Games and MSN Games to finish number 1 at the end of 2008. I am very proud to be part of the Spil Games team and of the dedication and hard work of all Spil’s employees to reach this major milestone!

The official press release:

SPIL GAMES, the world’s ultimate online game destination, confirmed today that it has become the largest casual game portal network worldwide based on results from the latest comScore Media Metrix assessment. According to recent reports, SPIL GAMES’ worldwide traffic grew 75% in 2008, bringing its casual game portal network worldwide ranking from the #5 position in early 2008 to the #1 position at close of the year. SPIL GAMES surpassed other top online game portals as the leading dedicated destination network for casual games. SPIL GAMES also reports a 269% increase in traffic in the United States as well as a global revenue growth of 125% in 2008.

“We are particularly proud of reaching the number one ranking in casual game portal networks worldwide. SPIL GAMES is a stand-alone, fully-dedicated and independent portal network, while competitors like Yahoo! Games and MSN Games are general portals with a channel for casual games. And, over the last year, we’ve been dedicated to growing our audience through a strategy focused on providing quality, fun-to-play, localized, and segmented portals,” said Peter Driessen, CEO of SPIL GAMES.

In addition to substantial traffic growth in the United States, SPIL GAMES saw increases in traffic in many other territories in its network of casual game portals last year: year-over-year traffic grew 113% in the United Kingdom, 52% in France, and 19% in Germany. In addition, SPIL GAMES finished the fourth quarter of 2008 with stronger-than-ever revenues. While the greatest concentrations of advertising revenue stream from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and France, SPIL GAMES works closely with advertising partners all around the world to develop advertising solutions and provide advergame seeding that reaches specific segments on its portals, making it not only the ultimate online destination for gamers, but for advertisers seeking the captivated attention of this valuable market as well.

For more information about SPIL GAMES, visit www.spilgames.com.

The past 3 days I spent in Amsterdam and Hilversum, mainly for business meetings at Spil Games. It was a good trip, glad I took the time to fly back and forth from China. Spil Games is doing very well despite the recession, and with the addition of some new key people in the management this will only get better. Expect to hear a lot more about Spil’s successes soon, this is just the beginning!

The weather was not that great, quite cold with occasionally some rain, but today the weather was suddenly very nice. Early this morning it was still freezing, during a run at dawn with my dad the rain puddles in the woods were still covered with ice. But once the sun climbed higher the temperature went up as well and now the weather is gorgeous. And the flowers also seem to like it, because today suddenly the flowers in my parents garden started to bloom!